Grades Matter: State-by-State telemedicine performances and what they mean

In the days of schooling that we all loved and miss dearly, report cards were used to denote “good” and “poor” students. Similarly, within the realm of U.S. telemedicine, standards to separate a “good” state for telemedicine and a “not-so-good” one have been put into motion. Earlier this month at its annual conference, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) released two key reports: a state-by-state analysis of coverage and reimbursement policies for telemedicine services and a second on physician practice standards and licensure in each state.

So who made the grade? In terms of coverage and reimbursement, five states (six including the District of Columbia) received an A based on 13 criteria. New Mexico, one of the lucky “A” states, received its grade for a few key reasons worth sharing:

• New Mexico has distinguished telehealth parity for private insurance, Medicaid and its state employee health plans.
• New Mexico is one of just five states to specify that its Medicaid program must cover telemedicine services provided by substance-abuse or addiction specialists.
• New Mexico Medicaid also covers telemental health delivered by licensed clinical social workers and counselors (as do several others). However, only New Mexico, Oklahoma and Washington do so for behavioral analysts. This trend, according to the ATA, “is unique because these specialists are critical for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders.”

And then there were those who didn’t make the class. The only two states to earn failing grades on coverage policies are small New England neighbors, Connecticut and Rhode Island. These two states each failed the three major categories–parity for private insurance, Medicaid and state employee health plans–mainly due to their lack of Medicaid telemedicine coverage (according to the ATA). Both Connecticut and Rhode Island allow telemedicine services without a telepresenter or other healthcare professional present with the patient and neither got extra points for innovative service-delivery models.

Catch up on your telemedicine news and see how all 50 states fared here with the ATA’s official telemedicine report card!

SOURCE: MedCity News

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit http://www.DoseSpot.com.

All Aboard the Funding Train: ONC Backs 6 Digital Health Pilots!

On Monday, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) awarded a hefty $300,000 to six winners of the inaugural ONC Market R&D Pilot Challenge. The Challenge, which launched in October 2014, finds early stage health care startups from across the U.S. and connects them with health care organizations for pilot partnerships and application testing. The six lucky entities, each receiving $50,000 for program funding, will live-test new health information technology applications in health care settings hosted by their challenge partners. Check out a few noteworthy winners below:

ClinicalBox and Lowell General Hospital

ClinicalBox develops software for care coordination and patient engagement across the surgical care continuum. ClinicalBox’s application, CoordinationBox, tracks a patient through the care delivery cycle and provides a visual overview of the stages of care. The pilot with Lowell General Hospital will test CoordinationBox’s efficacy in streamlining care during surgical episodes.

Gecko Health Innovations and Boston Children’s Hospital

Gecko Health Innovations’ product, CareTRx, uses medication sensors, mobile apps and savvy cloud computing to improve respiratory disease management for asthma patients. Gecko’s proprietary technology tracks medication use, sends reminders, records symptoms and shares reports with health professionals. The Gecko Health Innovations/Boston Children’s pilot will evaluate the effectiveness of CareTRx on asthma self-management among urban school children versus traditional disease self-management.

Optima Integrated Health and University of California, San Francisco, Cardiology Division

Optima-for-Blood Pressure (Optima4BP) is a cloud-based artificial intelligence solution that evaluates hypertensive patients’ status in real time to provide patient-specific recommendations for medication/treatment alterations. Hosted by UCSF’s Cardiology Division (and integrated with its EMR), the pilot will evaluate Optima4BP’s ability to improve care coordination for patients with uncontrolled hypertension.

Vital Care Telehealth Services and Dominican Sisters Family Health Service

Vital Care’s assisted telehealth program for seniors (called STATS) connects populations to caregivers for preventative care and chronic disease management programs. The pilot project will test STATS’ efficacy in increasing access to both primary and secondary prevention services on the Shinnecock Indian Health Services Clinic located in eastern Long Island.

For more information on the ONC Market R&D Challenge and the full list of winners, read Health2.0’s full blog post here—the pilot programs become operational in August!

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

“The couch is where it’s at:” 78.5 million to use home health technologies by 2020

According to a recent report from Tractica, a Colorado-based marketing intelligence firm, the number of people using home health-specific technologies is expected to increase from 14.3 million worldwide in 2014 to 78.5 million by the year 2020. This more than five-fold increase will be driven by a number of important factors—and if you’re curious (like we were) to find out what they are, read on!

Traditionally, home health technologies include offerings that enable providers to remotely monitor and treat patients with chronic conditions, improve care for elderly populations and conduct virtual visits with patients. Growing interests in these services, as Tractica mentions, are very much correlated with rising healthcare costs, a continuously aging population and a rise in the number of people living with one—or multiple—chronic conditions.

When getting down to the “nitty gritty” of research, Tractica added: within the home health technology space, “medical monitoring, diagnosis and treatment” will be the crucial segments to watch between 2014 and 2020–other key segments to keep in mind include remote consultations, elderly care and health & wellness. Tractia’s report states that these specific sectors will “drive the deployment of a wide variety of connected health devices and software applications.”

Although the home health tech industry faces a number of regulatory and security barriers to solve over the next few years, the future is looking bright. At the beginning of this year, a Harris Poll survey commissioned by American Well found 64% of patients to be on board with physician video visits and these numbers are only expected to climb.

For more information, read mobihealthnews’ full coverage article here.

SOURCE: mobihealthnews 

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Prescription Drug Monitoring? There’s an App for That

Earlier this week, New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs announced the launch of a new iPhone app that will allow authorized users of the state’s prescription drug monitoring program—namely pharmacists and prescribers licensed in New Jersey—to access the crucial database via their smartphone or tablet. The New Jersey Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (NJPMP) operates under the Division of Consumer Affairs and this state department is also responsible for managing and updating the prescription drug database.

The NJPMP collects data on prescriptions for controlled substances filled in the state of New Jersey, including opiate painkillers and a variety of narcotics. Prescribers can conveniently use the database to locate patients who may be “doctor shopping,” which the NJPMP defines as “deceptively visiting multiple physicians to obtain more prescription drugs than [a single doctor] would prescribe” or “trying to illegally obtain prescription drugs through use of multiple pharmacies.”

Officially launching in the year 2011, the NJPMP views this new iPhone app as the latest in a recurring series of upgrades that the Program has laid out for the coming months. A major goal, according to acting Attorney general John J. Hoffman, is to make the NJPMP as user-friendly as possible—thus increasing adoption rates among prescribers and pharmacists, whose participation in actively addressing prescription drug abuse is critical.

According to the NJPMP, 88.4% of the state’s 29,400 licensed prescribers are registered to use the NJPMP and between March and April of 2015, 169,000 user requests were submitted. The app is currently only available for iPhones and iPads, however, the NJPMP plans to launch both Android and Windows apps by the summer.

For more information on the New Jersey Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, check out a brief released by the Department of Consumer Affairs here!

SOURCE: mobihealthnews 

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Parsing the Patient Portal: Why Engagement Strategies Must Go Beyond It

According to a recent survey from HIMSS Analytics¹, major healthcare organizations are assessing current portal use and looking for ways to further enhance patient engagement. The survey found the top motivating factors for patient engagement to be the following: to enhance and improve community health (77%), to build brand loyalty for patients (77%) and to meet meaningful use requirements (60%).

Reasons for portal adoption—the current “go to” engagement tool on the healthcare scene—were also somewhat varied:

• Meeting meaningful use requirements for functionality and data sharing from a single source (71%)
• Using portals that offer patient services, technology and content (54%)
• Using portals as a configurable, interoperable information exchange platform with multi-source data sharing (51%)
• Using portals provided by electronic health record vendor of choice (66%)

With a predominant and short-term focus on meaningful use, many healthcare IT companies are in the process of designing products that span the entire care continuum—from the time a patient first engages with a provider until treatment is completed. These “next-generation” portals will allow patients to become partners in their own care, by offering features such as e-visits or e-consultations (80% of respondents are seeking), interoperability across multiple providers (70% seeking), health evaluation and coaching (70% seeking) and televisits (50% seeking)

Overall, healthcare leaders are looking to better align portals with the definition of patient engagement and ensure that accessible healthcare tools provide patients with appropriate decision-making powers when it comes to health and wellness.

For more details on HIMSS’ recent patient portal survey, check out Healthcare Informatics’ coverage here!

SOURCE: Healthcare Informatics

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

¹HIMSS Analytics is the marketing intelligence division of HIMSS.

“Getting the Bedside View:” UK Virtual Reality Project Puts Clinicians in Patients’ Shoes

From the hospital to the pediatrician’s office, providing compassion and patient support is a top priority for most providers in the modern healthcare era. New initiatives to improve these metrics are constantly in the works, as evidenced by South Devon Healthcare Foundation Trust’s (England) teaming up with innovative software developers to create a firsthand virtual reality simulation of the patient experience.

Meet PatientVR, the brainchild of South Devon’s innovation team and spearheaded by PhD student Nick Peres. Initially, Peres and team were building out a “patient-esque” mannequin that could blink, breathe, bleed and speak—with the goal to develop a more accurate and realistic training tool for medical personnel. When considering the importance of what a patient feels and sees, however, ideas soon migrated to the topic of virtual reality.

PatientVR runs on a headset and chronicles a patient being transported to the ER with chest pain. Originating in the ambulance, said patient is stabilized, examined, informed that he is having a heart attack and then rolled into the operating room where pre-surgical risks are voiced via a team of surgeons. The video is seven minutes long and comprehensively captures the patient perspective along every point of the care delivery process. Oh, and did we mention that Peres filmed the video himself with the help of seven GoPro cameras?

A recent article in HIStalk Connect gathered feedback from a number of clinicians currently piloting PatientVR, including anesthesiologist Tod Guest. When asked about PatientVR’s efficacy, Dr. Guest praised the tool for “[reinforcing] the need to be sensitive to [patients’] needs and their ability to understand the information you’re [giving] them. Their vulnerability and emotional state is important, especially if they are suddenly taken ill with something serious.” If funding is secured in time, PatientVR will be rolled out across a number of UK-based health systems this year. Fingers crossed that Peres makes it over to the states as well!

SOURCE: HIStalk Connect 

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Talkin’ Bout Big Bucks: Wireless Health and Fitness Device Market to Hit $1.8B by 2019

Even though the year has just begun, financial predictions are already out for the wireless health and fitness device market. According to a recent article published in mobihealthnews, Juniper Research, a UK-based online and digital research firm, is predicting revenues of $320 million by the close of 2015. While this number is certainly promising, the real “head turner” is the four to five year outlook: Juniper also foresees a sixfold increase from 2015 to 2019, with the market reaching a whopping $1.8 billion in annual revenues.

With these statistics out in the open, there’s no denying that a wireless health and fitness device “explosion” is upon us. As far as the experts are concerned, however, there are a few key points to keep in mind as the healthtech arena moves forward. In order to succeed, says connected fitness and health author James Moar, a market shift from hardware to software must occur: “People want to interact with the devices at the app level [beyond merely collecting biometric data]. Because of this, and the omnipresence of sensors, the importance of the hardware will diminish at a much faster rate” than other segments of the consumer electronics market.

Juniper predicts that major growth in the wireless health device market will be driven by the “freemium model,” or a paradigm that offers a basic app and (potentially) device for free and then charges for more sophisticated add-ons. Consumers will be able to track personal fitness and health data for free, but will pay for apps and services that go a step further—interpreting and analyzing the data to make it meaningful. In all, 12.9 million users are predicted to be engaged with these paid service platforms by 2019—will you be one of them?

For more information on key findings, check out Juniper Research’s full press release here!

SOURCES: mobihealthnews and Juniper Research 

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Looking for Treatment Feedback? Read the Rx Recs!

For hungry restaurant-goers, we have Yelp. For vacation planners, there’s TripAdvisor. And now, for those seeking medication reviews, behold a new and enticing creation: RateRx. According to a recent article published in TechCrunch, on-demand digital health app HealthTap has gathered drug recommendations from over 500,000 medical doctors and is consolidating them into an innovative initiative for patients across the country. Have we piqued your interest yet? Read on.

Although HealthTap’s primary focus is offering on-demand treatment services, its California-based management team recently recognized the need to offer doctor-recommended drug reviews. In its first iteration, RateRx will be geared towards those “on-the-go”—patients can access firsthand, U.S. doctor-generated evaluations of medications and treatments from a free smartphone app. Commonly rated treatments for conditions such as acne, arthritis, anxiety, diabetes, headaches and hypertension are anticipated.

In terms of workflow, HealthTap has mapped out the following: RateRx will ask a doctor to rate the efficacy of a certain medication (doctors can only rate medications they have physically used to treat an illness/condition). Doctors are free to add any ancillary comments and all ratings are then polled into an overall “summary” score. Patients are able to see the results of these ratings, along with individual comments. Each provider using RateRx will have a profile complete with his/her credentials and areas of specialty that patients can also view at will.

Through the creation of RateRx, HealthTap hopes to provide consumers with reliable medication ratings, prevent medication mishaps and improve patient care by encouraging physicians to factor online ratings into future patient-oriented treatment strategies. A deeper look into RateRx can be found here on HealthTap’s website.

SOURCES: TechCrunch and HealthTechZone

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Setting the “Stage” for MU3: Details on Federal Approach Expected Soon

As the days of March begin to pick up, so do developments in the Healthcare IT arena. Washington insiders recently began speculating that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will release Stage 3 meaningful-use (MU3) rules later this month. Per usual, ideas are already circulating as to what these rules will—and should—include.

According to the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the third stage of the incentive program will have a primary focus on data-sharing, or interoperability (a surefire MU3 “buzzword”). While rules provide adequate guidelines for adoption, many healthcare professionals would like to see actionable results—such as Athenahealth’s Vice President of Government & Regulatory affairs, Dan Haley. In a recent article published in Modern Healthcare, Haley stated that the rules for MU3 should also require the “actual sharing of records rather than merely [setting] standards for how to accomplish interoperability…Providers should be able to see in one place a summary of a patient’s longitudinal health history…Without the need to [access] multiple systems.”

In addition to MU3 implementation suggestions, many healthcare professionals have expressed interest in seeing new tech-savvy “bells and whistles.” Some are pushing for better “unique device identifier” support, which would allow public health officials to track specific devices through the vast healthcare system. Another purported new standard for technology could be the inclusion of “patient-generated health data” from devices including fitness monitors and health-tracking apps, which may help clinicians track the day-to-day lifestyles of patients in innovative ways. Stay tuned for the official release of MU3 requirements towards the end of this month!

SOURCE: Modern Healthcare 

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

From Startups to “Scaling Up:” U.S. Health Systems Find Value in Telemedicine

As predicted for early 2015, telehealth developments are gaining a strong foothold in a number of healthcare arenas here in the U.S. One area of particular interest are major health systems, as recent initiatives to adopt and deploy innovative and large-scale telehealth plans have made it into the healthtech spotlight:

1. University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC)

As the only academic medical center in the state of Mississippi, UMMC looks forward to connecting with more than 165 hospitals, clinics, workplaces and schools via the creation of its new Center for Telehealth. Additionally, UMMC hopes that its new Center will help alleviate and address some of the major barriers to rural healthcare access within Mississippi State.

2. Avera Health

Based in South Dakota, Avera Health—clocking in with 31 hospitals total—is revamping and expanding its telemedicine program of already epic proportions. eCare is purported to be the biggest and most encompassing telemedicine operation in the world, covering an area the size of France and Germany combined. With 8 states involved (South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana) and telemedicine services for ICU, Emergency, Pharmacy, internal medicine, specialty care and long-term care, Avera Health remains a force to be reckoned with in the telehealth space.

3. Geisinger Health System

An early adopter of telehealth, this Pennsylvania-based entity has been pushing for solidified and widespread virtual health resources since 2012. This same year, Geisinger found that its own telehealth technology cut readmission rates by a shocking 44 percent. Focusing strongly on teleICU, Geisinger has seen strongly positive healthcare and financial outcomes in recent years and continues to refine telehealth initiatives as we speak.

4. Mercy Health

Got big telehealth plans? Then you might want to consult Mercy Health for advice…They have an entire facility devoted to virtual care. Operating out of St. Louis, Mercy Health constructed a telehealth facility in May of 2014, investing $50 million towards completion. The center hosts 300 physicians, nurses, specialists, researchers and support staff who are on call 24/7 for both video and audio services. Within the first 5 years that the center is up and running Mercy Health estimates that it will manage more than 3 million telehealth visits.

5. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)

Much like Geisinger, UPMC has moved quickly to meet telemedicine demands and efficiently reduce readmission rates. Over a 23-month period in 2013, UPMC increased patient visits by 49 percent, totaling 10,000 telemedicine visits. Among these visits, UPMC saw marked progress with heart failure patients in particular. When paired with a visiting nurse and subsequent telemonitoring, readmission rates hovered around 5 percent—versus the 28 percent readmission rate with no monitoring whatsoever. A massive difference indeed!

SOURCES: Medcitynews and Avera Health

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.